


Girl In A Pink Dress

by seamscribe



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Weddings, johanna's family - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-06
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-07-12 13:35:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7107040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seamscribe/pseuds/seamscribe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Johanna's last happy memories before her Reaping. Part one of two.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

 

 

Past

 

 

 

“Tell me again why Sasha chose such a hideous freaking color for this dress?” Johanna groused, smoothing her hands over the pale pink fabric of her bridesmaid’s dress. 

 

“It’s your sister’s wedding day. She can please herself,” Mrs. Mason sighed. She had been listening to Johanna complain about the frilly nightmare for weeks. She even had to promise to make her a new dress out of the wedding gown for the Reaping, which was in just five days. “And you look very pretty.”

 

Johanna looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was the longest it had ever been and her face was darkening with the beginning of a summer tan. Now that school was out, she had been working like crazy and the sun was intense at the top of the trees. 

 

“I look like a dork,” she said critically.

 

“Why, because it’s not halfway up your legs?” her sister Sasha snarked at her, coming into the small, cramped room at the back of the town hall that had been turned into a dressing room for the day. “And don’t say ‘freaking’,” she added. “You sound so goddamn common.” She gave her little sister a once over and said, “Yeah, you look alright. Get Lissy in here.”

 

Johanna looked herself over one more time. A girl in a pink dress. She  _ did _ look pretty, but she wasn’t going to tell Sasha that. Too bad hardly anyone from town would be there--the food was going to cost so much that the fewer guests they could have, the better. 

 

Everything else in the wedding had to be made themselves to save the money--Johanna had been making tiny candles and paper cranes for hours every day  for the decorations. Her arms ached at night from chipping wax after working all day. It didn’t look too shabby. In fact, it looked downright fancy in the hall.

 

She was glad her parents would finally relax once the wedding was over. The guy who was crazy enough to wanna spend eternity with  _ Sasha _ was pretty rich but some old rule dictated that the bride’s family was supposed to pay for the wedding, which was the dumbest thing Johanna had ever heard. It pissed her off to no end to watch the whole family slave away to pay for something that would be over by midnight, but Sasha was so happy. 

 

Annalise Mason drug her feet coming into the room. The thirteen-year-old was as annoyed with the wedding as Johanna was, as her measly allowance had been canceled to save money. Johanna had actual money of her own, but most of it had gone to pay for the chicken they were having for the wedding dinner. The rest went to a rare trip for ice cream with Lissy and some cute hair clips that matched her dress. She hated pink, but that was no reason not to look cute. 

 

Lissy would be old enough to work in two years. It made her nervous. The job was relatively safe, but Lissy was clumsy for some reason. Sasha had poise and grace--presumably because she was a huge snob--and Johanna was light on her feet, but Lissy was  _ all _ feet. Maybe she would grow out of it, but Johanna had never seen Sasha trip over her enviably long legs.

 

Lissy was probably going to take after their father as well--she was already getting close to Johanna’s decidedly modest height and she was still two years younger. Sasha was the loveliest sister--their father’s height and their mother’s bust.  


 

“Why do I have to put it on  _ now _ ? No one’s even here,” Lissy whined.

 

“Why do you have to whine so much?” Sasha mimicked from behind a cloud of face powder. She was the oldest at eighteen, but she had a hard time being mature with her sisters, whom she usually referred to as ‘those little terrors’.

 

“Can you girls stop fighting for one afternoon? It’s a goddamn special day,” their mother sighed, taking a drink of bourbon. 

 

“Sorry, Mama,” the three girls said in unison.

 

Johanna helped Lissy into her dress. It was a little loose, but it was too late to fix it and she wasn’t too keen on her baby sister wearing tight dresses, anyway. She had the same sweet face as their mother, but with their father’s eyes. 

 

Johanna pushed Lissy’s hair back and smiled. “You look nice, Little Lissy.”

 

“Thanks, Sissy,” her sister smiled back.

 

“Aww, Sissy and Lissy,” Sasha laughed. “I haven’t heard that in so long.”

 

There was a peaceful lull while her mother curled her hair, but it didn’t last. Chewing her fingernails, Sasha said, “Johanna, Branden will be at the party later, so please try not to embarrass me. You know Carny Owens is sweet on him.”

 

“So, what?”

 

“She’s going to be your cousin, you little brat!”

 

“By  _ marriage _ ,” Johanna scoffed.

 

“Jo, listen, you don’t even like him. He bores you to tears. I know you. Carny doesn’t have forever to be pretty. Let her have a cute boyfriend while she can before she marries some fat slob who doesn’t even like her.”

 

Just when Johanna started to forget that Sasha was a Mason girl.

 

“Wow, Sasha, she’s going to be your  _ cousin _ !”

 

“You little--I’m being serious! You can’t run around like a little boy-crazy psycho. They’re family is very snobby.”

 

“Oh, so you’ll fit right in.” Frankly, she thought Sasha had walked straight into that one.

 

“Johanna, go help your father in the kitchen,” Mrs. Mason said, with a calm borne of experience. A  _ lot _ of experience. 

 

“Gladly,” Johanna said, sticking her nose in the air.

 

As she expected, her father wasn’t doing anything but drinking a beer and staring into the oven at the chicken. Her stomach growling announced her presence.

 

Her father nodded at her. “Pretty,” he said gruffly. He did almost everything gruffly. Mom said it was where Johanna got her goddamn temper. He waved her over and put an arm around her. He smiled. “I love you, my little fairy girl.” Then again, he could also be a total sap.

 

“Love you, too. Mom said to come help you, so...can I have a beer?”

 

Her father snorted, but he did pour her a little, and chuckle when she almost spat it out.

 

She hopped on the counter and watched the chicken while she thought about what her sister had said about Branden. It was true that Carny Owens was sweet on Branden, and that he bored Johanna to tears. She only flirted with Branden to make another boy jealous, and that other boy wouldn’t even be there. Jason was way too cool to be somewhere as lame as this wedding. Jason was a  _ bad _ boy. She fantasized a little about his light eyes and dark hair and the teasing smile he gave her when--

 

“Stop thinking about boys!” her father said with a glare. 

 

How did he freaking do that? “Don’t worry, Dad,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You won’t have to pay for another wedding anytime soon.”

 

“A small price. You should all marry rich. Not have to worry so much about money. Not have to work so hard.” He took a drink and said, “We could never give you girls a nice life--”

 

“Oh, Daddy, don’t say that.” She got off the counter and hugged him. “We have a nice life,” she said firmly. 

 

He patted her shoulder. “You’re a good girl, Jo. A sweet girl.”

 

Johanna was skeptical, but she shrugged. “Whatever you say, Dad.”

 

 

***

 

 

They spent forever taking pictures before the hall filled up. By six, the candles were lit, the cranes were strewn, and Johanna was waiting for her cue to go through the door and down the aisle. 

 

She was the last bridesmaid to go, and she was charged with holding the carved piece of wood that Sasha would exchange with her new husband. The tradition in Seven was to choose a tree close to your love’s childhood home and use wood from that tree to carve a gift--something small enough to fit in your pocket when you were working. Her father still carried the tiny horse her mother had made him, the features long since worn off. 

 

It could be anything--Sasha sucked at carving, so her piece just had their initials carved rudely into it. You had to make it yourself or else Johanna would have made her something awesome, but there was something sweet about it, anyway.     


 

The door cracked open; that was her cue. She took a deep breath and started down the aisle.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And new memories...

 

Present

  


Johanna is giving herself a critical look in the mirror when she hears the door open behind her. She meets Gale’s eyes in the mirror and grins. He looks delicious in his suit. He slips in and closes the door to the dressing room behind him.

 

“You know, they used to say it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding,” she says, raising an eyebrow.

 

“Couldn’t wait,” he says, coming up behind her and putting his hands on her shoulders, which have been exfoliated to hell and back and glow with shimmery powder that makes her looks kind of pearly when the light hits her the right way. “You look so pretty. You don’t look much different from the picture,” he says, picking up the photo on the vanity: her, Lissy, and Sasha in their wedding best.

 

Her hair is shorter and her eyes don’t have quite the same care-free sparkle of the fifteen-year-old brat she had been that day and would be for another five days before she was shipped off to the Games, but they’re not the blank spaces they were a few years ago. “Your hair looks so neat. Makes me wanna mess it up. Can I see the dress?”

 

She stands up and gives him a little twirl. “Wow, Mom did a great job. It looks just like your sister’s.”

 

So the dress is right, the candles are right, the paper cranes are right. She had pawned the work off on her soon-to-be siblings this time, and the guest list is bigger than Sasha’s. They can afford more than one chicken.   

 

He touches her cheek. “I love you.”

 

She raises a finger to her lips. “Don’t make me cry. This make-up took forever.”

 

“Can we get misty-eyed?”

 

“If my mascara runs, you’re redoing it.”

 

Gale shrugs. “I have steady hands.”

 

She smirks. “Oh, I know you do.” They share a smile that almost makes her blush under her fake blush. “Alright, Hawthorne, get out before I wanna get out of this lovely dress.”

 

“You know, you’ll be a Hawthorne the next time I see you. Well, a Hawthorne-Mason.” She’s the last Mason woman and she is holding onto the name forever.

 

“Yes, I will,” she says, and her eyes water despite her declaration.

 

He takes a deep breath and says, “See you soon.” He kisses her lips and then her forehead and then leaves with a huff.

 

She gives herself a final once over. She is, somehow, a girl in a pink dress again.

 

The music starts in the hall a few minutes later and Johanna takes a deep breath and runs her hands over the dress one last time. They have foregone bridesmaids and groomsmen. Seemed too complicated. She was already the one who had to convince Gale that he would regret not having Katniss at his wedding, and she wanted Peeta there, besides.If anyone is going to make her cry tonight, it's him.

 

It took a presidential pardon, but they are out in the audience in their wedding best, holding hands. Love is weird.

 

After their vows, they will exchange their carvings. Hers will be made from the tree that grew where her house used to be. She has spent a long time making the detailed figure of a rabbit. It was the first animal that Gale caught after his Dad died. He had been so relieved that he almost cried.

 

She goes to stand next to the door that will open and invite her to the future. It seems right to revisit her past, today of all days. She thinks of her sisters and it doesn't hurt as much as it used to.

 

The door cracks open; that is her cue. She takes a deep breath and starts down the aisle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just some light fluff to start the week.
> 
> Please comment if you enjoyed and check out my other Gale/Johanna stories!


End file.
